Upon purchasing a phone for the first time, your wireless provider may offer free texting. You may also search for a plan that includes unlimited text messaging.
Candice Abrams has been writing since , contributing to "Coed Media Magazine" and various online publications. Abrams also has experience in the health and fashion fields. Home Phone. Step 1 Choose a prepaid wireless provider. Unlimited texting may only apply to friends and family members that have the same plan. Making international calls from your prepaid cell phone may be easy -- if you're calling from the United States and your prepaid plan offers an international option.
If you plan to make calls from another country, however, you probably want to consider other options, like an international prepaid cell phone.
Let's say you're calling from within the United States, using a Virgin Mobile prepaid phone as an example. For some countries -- like Canada, Puerto Rico or Jamaica -- you don't even need to dial Virgin Mobile charges the international per-minute rate for the country you're calling plus your standard airtime rate. There's no additional international charge for calls to Puerto Rico or the U. Virgin Islands. If you're calling from another country, however, you're likely to have a problem with your phone's compatibility with local networks.
Cell phone networks in the United States use several different technologies to transmit information. Cell phone users in those countries can buy one phone and simply switch to a different SIM card for phone access in each country. But unless you have the phone unlocked to work with other cell phone providers, you'll probably have to pay your company's international roaming rates.
Your service probably won't give you the code to unlock the phone, but several Web sites offer unlock codes for free or a small fee. SIM cards for various countries are available from Web sites such as Telestial. If you're going to be spending an extended time in a country, another option is to buy a prepaid cell phone once you arrive. In almost every country, you get unlimited incoming calls for free. For lots more information on prepaid cell phones and related topics, see the helpful links on the next page.
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Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Cell Phones. How Prepaid Cell Phones Work. Prepaid cell phones are a great way to monitor teens' phone usage. Who Uses Prepaid Cell Phones? Read More. Advantages of Prepaid Cell Phones " ". Parents of teenagers. If you don't have any minutes left, you can't make calls or send text messages, although you can still call for emergencies and, with some phones, receive messages stored until you have the minutes to view them.
Parents can buy a cheap cell phone for a teen and a card per month for a set number of minutes, leaving the teen to budget use and pay for additional minutes. Occasional cell phone users. If you only use a cell phone for emergencies and perhaps a few calls a week, you don't need a fancy phone or a complicated billing plan. A prepaid phone may work well, but make sure you know about any time limit on unused minutes. Short-term users. Buy it, use it on vacation or while your regular cell phone is missing or broken -- and then throw it away.
Trial users. Before committing to a long-term cell phone plan, use a prepaid phone for a month or two to gauge what your or your teenager's actual usage will be.
Then you can find a plan with the minutes and calling times to match. Young adults and others with no credit history or credit card debt. Buying a prepaid cell phone doesn't require a long-term contract and credit check, so students with part-time jobs or older adults with no use of credit or a less-than-perfect credit record can get a phone easily. Reaching out with Political Activism. Problems with Prepaid Cell Phones " ".
Prepaid cell phone plans require users to monitor usage so they don't run out of minutes. Putting Names to Prepaid Phone Users.
Prepaid Cell Phone Plans " ". Virgin Mobile's basic prepaid plan gives users the Aloha cell phone. Image courtesy of Virgin Mobile. A daily fee applied every day or on each day you use the phone A roaming charge outside a certain area Fees that vary based on the time you use the phone Added charges for services such as text messaging, sending pictures or using the Internet.
Prepaid Cell Phone Providers " ". Image courtesy of Verizon. More from the J. Powers Survey. Where prepaid users buy phones with prepackaged minutes: Nearly 60 percent at retail stores and 25 percent via the Internet.
International Prepaid Cell Phones " ". Looks like you all are wrong. That is what I intend to do. Thanks, Wesley. With ATT you don't buy "minutes" as you do with some other providers. Or to be more accurate with my wording: Actually, the 90 or days are the days before the account balance expires, the actual account is then left for another 60 days and is reactivated when a new refill is added.
You will however loose what's left on the account if a refill isn't added in time, before the balance expires. Clear as mud? Not as far as I can see. You have to physically purchase the feature plan each month on a PayGo account. However, it is the least expensive way to have a phone that you only use for messaging. You'll have to purchase the messaging plan at least once per month, but so long as you purchase a new plan before the month has expired, your unused messages will "rollover" to the following month - and you just keep using funds that you've placed into your account - no "new" money is required for each purchase and you aren't spending money for services that you don't utilize i.
If you don't mind other carrier's phone line-ups, I would suggest looking elsewhere. As a fellow heavy texter, I can easily tell you how awful it is. Oh yeah! Forgot about that truly annoying message telling me my last action was 0.
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